4th September 2009

Bridges Trade BioRes | Africa Unites on Climate Change

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Recent moves by African leaders suggest the continent is moving toward a consensus on its approach to climate change. The momentum began in July when African leaders at the African Union Summit agreed that Africa should be represented by one delegation in Copenhagen. Ministers from 10 African countries then met on 25 August in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia to hammer out a common position on climate change. A special summit of the African Union - held on 31 August in Tripoli, Libya - considered a plan to ask industrialised nations to pay Africa US$67 billion a year as part of a common negotiating position for December’s climate talks in Copenhagen.

And most recently, on 3 September, the African Progress Panel prepared in partnership with the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), African Development Bank (AfDB) and the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) a policy brief as an input to meetings of African Ministers of Finance, of Environment, of AU Heads of State, and international partners. This brief calls for Africa to use the full force of its 54 votes at the UNFCCC on issues beyond carbon finance, such as setting clear emission targets, African carbon offsets and technology transfer.

Some humanitarian organisations are drawing attention to the threat climate change poses to countries in the developing world - particularly Africa - despite the fact that the world’s 50 poorest countries contribute less than one percent of the world’s carbon dioxide emissions. According to a recent study commissioned by the Geneva-based Global Humanitarian Forum, poor nations bear more than 90 percent of the human and economic burden of climate change. Africa is the region most at risk from global warming and is home to 15 of the 20 most vulnerable countries, the study indicated. The study predicts that by 2020 up to 200-million people in Africa could be affected by water stress, precipitous drops in agricultural yields, increased food insecurity, and stress on ecosystems that support people in rural areas. Coastal flooding from rising sea levels would also affect the continent.

‘Dismal co-ordination’

The recent moves in Addis Ababa and Tripoli to agree a common negotiating platform for Africa recognise the continent’s failure to make its voice heard on the climate change debate. One of the documents prepared for the Addis Ababa meeting refers to the “dismal co-ordination” of the African negotiation process. So far, delegations from individual countries have had limited success in making the case that Africa needs special help to cope with climate change.

The US, China, India, and the EU are expected to have the greatest sway in Copenhagen. But African leaders will be hoping that by speaking with one voice at Copenhagen, their negotiating position can be significantly enhanced.

”One single country will not solve its environmental problems on its own,” said Kenya’s environment secretary, Alice Kaudia. “It will need partners, and that’s why it’s very important that there’s that unified common position.”

At the Addis Ababa meeting, African Union Commission chair Jean Ping insisted that Africa must aggressively engage in climate change negotiations to ensure its interests are met in the designing of global responses. The lack of a coordinated stance on global warming by African governments has placed serious limitations on Africa’s ability to negotiate in the past.

The continent’s current position

At the most recent climate change negotiations in Bonn, Germany observers called Africa’s position unified and strong (see Bridges Trade BioRes, 21 August 2009, http://ictsd.net/i/news/biores/53375/). South Africa’s chief climate change negotiator Alf Wills remarked that, as a region, Africa was “probably the most unified” at the meeting.

Wills further explains that there is divergence on climate change priorities within Africa. For example, least developed countries (LDCs) and small island developing states (SIDS) place adaptation to the effects of climate change as their top priority, oil producing countries say response measures were their top priority, and the emerging economies - like South Africa - placed technology transfer at the top of their agenda.

Trade links

South African climate change negotiator Joanne Yawitch noted in Addis Ababa that climate change was far reaching, and also ventured into the areas of trade and trade barriers, as well as competition and protection of industries.

The majority of African countries face significant levels of poverty and increased levels of climate-related threats such as droughts, floods, hurricanes will further increase these pressures. While these countries represent only a small portion of world trade, the UN says they are amongst the most trade-dependent in the world and key trade sectors - such as agriculture, fisheries, and tourism - are among the most susceptible to the impacts of climate change. Many of these countries have struggled and achieved limited success in diversifying their economies.

As trade is a primary driver of economic growth for for for most countries in the region, and especially for LDCs, Small and Vulnerable Economies (SVEs), and SIDS, trade policy will be an important element in strengthening these countries’ resilience to external shocks, including those arising from the impacts of climate change.

Larger African economies will also play a leading role in the enhancement of trade and productive capacities in the region. The interface between trade and climate change has entered the international policy arena, however, much is yet to be explored in terms of deepening the various stakeholders’ knowledge on the nature of the links between these two issues and their future sustainable development implications.

Distributing compensation

Reports say that African nations will likely demand US$67 billion per year from developed countries as ‘compensation’ for the historical responsibility of the industrialised nations for emitting the greenhouse gases that cause climate change. While it seems unlikely at this point that the full amount will be agreed to by developed countries, any transfer of funds from developed countries will be connected with strict conditions.

The African Union says it wants individual countries to use the money to carry out national plans of action, which mostly consist of finding ways to use efficient technologies in the energy, agriculture, and water management sectors, as well as obtaining intellectual property rights for these technologies. Science-guided projects can help with adaptation and mitigation.

This would support research and development, early warning and disaster response systems, the building of emergency response systems and the follow-up response, as well as developing sectoral resilience for slow longer-term changes in climate.

In 2007, the UNDP’s Human Development report made several specific suggestions for spending finance for climate change in Africa. The report urged African governments to expand meteorological monitoring networks to give farmers better information about climate patterns - a major concern facing the continent’s poorest countries. The UNDP also suggested countries improve social insurance to protect farmers and poor urban residents from the worst effects of climate-related disasters. Countries with high rainfall concentrated in a few weeks of the year - such as Ethiopia, Kenya, and Tanzania - were also urged to invest in water-storage or ‘water harvesting’ facilities.

ICTSD Reporting;

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